With week 1 in the books, we head into a lukewarm week 2 of the 2015 Daily Getaways. There’s some value to be had here, but other than maxing out one of the Vegas packages, not much in the way of hidden gold. In case you’re not familiar, Daily Getaways are daily deals sponsored by the US Travel Association. Some are better than others, so you need to think about whether you can take full advantage of the offer before buying. For the more popular offers, they will sell out […]

Today’s Daily Getaway offer is a 4-pack of Universal Studios Hollywood 2-day park tickets for $302 when you pay with an American Express card. In case you’re not familiar, Daily Getaways are daily deals sponsored by the US Travel Association. Some are better than others, so you need to think about whether you can take full advantage of the offer before buying. For the more popular offers, they will sell out quickly, which means being around right when they go on sale each day at 1:00 pm EDT. Some offers will […]

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The Best of the Rest is my effort to summarize all the travel/miles and points stories that interested me on a daily basis but didn’t have time to write about in length. Culled from over 100 blogs/authors I follow, some are passed along without comment, while I add my analysis to others. This is your shortcut to find out what’s going on in the travel world without having to read dozens of travel blogs to get all the best info.

Venture Beat doesn’t think so, and I’m not 100% sure they’re wrong. But, before I discuss the article, a little background on why someone allergic to social media like me became a Foursquare nut. A few years ago, a company called TopGuest came up with this concept where you could earn airline miles and hotel points for checking in at various places on Foursquare. I can’t say I thought it was a terribly good business model, but they convinced a bunch of hotel chains to hand out miles for this. […]

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with the original announcement that American Airlines was creating bundled pricing that included change fees at a lower apparent cost. Things got a little better when American also announced they were expanding the timeframe you could request a same day change to your flight. And, then things started to get a bit screwy. It started with just one flight I couldn’t get to price right with Choice Plus as an add-on. But, then I did a bit more digging and found out […]

There seems to be some clarity on exactly how American Airlines will handle restrictions for ticket sales in Argentina. I received the following information that was sent by American Airlines to ticket agents today: Argentina Point of Sale Restrictions September 26, 2014 American Airlines has implemented sales restrictions for Argentina point-of-sale on our flights to/from Buenos Aires (EZE), Argentina. These sales restrictions do not apply to point-of-sale outside of Argentina. Reservations can still be made or ticketed for travel on American and American codeshare (AA*/OA) flights for departures prior to: […]

As travel has gotten more stressful the benefits of elite status are even more valuable. In some cases, what used to be free for everyone is now only free for those customers that fly most frequently. I value my American Airlines Executive Platinum status more highly than any status I’ve earned, including 1K service with United Airlines. However, Global Services is another matter. For those not aware, Global Services is an invitation-only status level that United bestows on their best customers. What defines a best customer? Well, United doesn’t list […]

Plenty of my hotel reviews have been from aspirational properties around the world that we’ve been able to enjoy as part of our family vacations. But, in order to earn enough points to stay at those properties, there were a lot of nights in properties that weren’t located beside a tropical beach or poised in the perfect venue in a foreign city. I don’t write up my experiences at many of these properties, but I’m thinking of trying to do so. In a lot of these cases, properties in the […]